[ARCHIVED] e-portfolios for potential employers

[natalie_norton1]

Does anyone have experience with students sharing e-portfolios?

We have students on placement creating e-portfolios, which includes previous assignments they have chosen to include. These are then shared via private link with potential employers (who we have set up with Canvas accounts, although I think this should not be necessary?).

We are finding, however, that although they can view the e-portfolio they cannot see the assignments - they get an 'unauthorised' message when they try to view them.

We are assuming this is not intended behaviour, as the description of e-portfolios is  "users can build an unlimited number of ePortfolios in which to collect and document their educational projects, submissions, experiences, and other work products. Users can keep ePortfolios private or share with other students, instructors, and/or future employers."

Does anyone have any experience with this? (We do not want to start adding the employers to courses as it is not practical and that would give them access to other info - we just want them to see the relevant e-portfolio and info in it!)

Thank you!

[bneporadny]

Hi  @natalie_norton1 ,

My institution isn't using #eportfolios‌ yet, but I am going to share this with the https://community.canvaslms.com/groups/admins‌ and https://community.canvaslms.com/groups/designers‌ groups to see if anyone else in those groups have had a similar experience or can assist you. 

Brian

[kathryn_suk]

Hello, my understanding is that e-portfolios are only accessible while someone is a registered user in a Canvas course.  If the students have already left the institution or are no longer enrolled in Canvas, maybe the links to the porfolio assignments/artifacts are disabled.

[natalie_norton1 · Accepted solution]

Hi - just to update we have confirmed that this should work (either by sending private link or public link to the employers) but there is currently a bug which means the assignments in docviewer are not visible. They can see the rest of the e-portfolio but not the assignments, so these need to be downloaded separately.

 @kathryn_suk ‌ thanks, yes, that is an issue once they graduate - it would be great if longer term the e-poortfolios could be more portable! 

[rrdaniel2]

Another option, admittedly more expensive or more bothersome, but also more adaptable, would be to use a dedicated ePortolio software/service provider. Or to set up and administer an institutional ePortfolio service separate from the LMS. I'm not sure how easily one could integrate those different options with Canvas, but one could always have students download Canvas assignments, then transfer them to the free-standing ePortfolio service or software. The advantage is that subsequent student use of the ePortfolio would not be dependent on access to Canvas. It would make that service "portable," as long as the institution maintained its subscription or operated the institutional ePortfolio service.

Finally, following the cues of Jim Groom, the University of Mary Washington, and Audrey Watters (among others) emphasizing the desirability of having "A Domain of One's Own," institutions could offer students guidance for acquiring their own domains and/or designing their own websites, which would give them far more direct control over their own ePortfolios -- or other evidence, credentials, accumulated work and accomplishments and how those items are displayed. Students or former students would not have to depend on institutions for a hosting solution for the ePortfolio.

Just to point to three potential solutions outside of Canvas:  Portfolium, Mahara, Google Sites.  There are many other options.

[kathryn_suk]

I use a free online website builder, Weebly or Wix, with my students.

Kathryn Suk, M. Ed.

Assistant Professor of Education and Student Development, Student Development Coordinator

EDUC: Humanities, Social Sciences, Social Work, and Education Department; Liberal and Fine Arts Division

STDV: Academic Support and Education Partnerships Division

Somerset Hall 317

P.O. Box 3300

118 Lamington Road

Somerville, New Jersey 08876

908.526.1200 x8983

@KSukEDUC

[rrdaniel2]

Yes. Those are good solutions, and somewhat more flexible than Google Sites, I think. The question, then, is to help students figure out and think critically about the best way to organize their digital artifacts and ideas to underscore their competencies and highlight their particular motivation, experience and personal profile. I know that not all students need to be website designers, but they do need to think about how to shape, how to present and how to manage their web presence.

The advantage of having a personal domain is that one can fashion a URL that is meaningful and easy to remember, which is not always the case for sites built via Google Sites, Wix, etc.

There are many options. The question is... how do we help students devise effective ePortfolios that they can carry with them and sustain over their careers or unfolding professional lives, as long as they need to?

[natalie_norton1]

Yes there are certainly some really good dedicated e-portfolio tools as you suggest, which longer term we would love to have, but have budgetary implications so unfortunately not an option in the short term. New data regs mean we are not able to use free sites for assessment purposes, so trying to find a solution within Canvas if we can!  I definitely agree that helping students create a long term developing space is something we would like to work towards longer term. 

[rrdaniel2]

Thanks, Natalie. Glad to hear it. Wouldn't it be great for students if there were a seamless options where learners can easily keep control of their ePortfolio, moving smoothly from being enrolled in Canvas as students to being professionals or autonomous agents outside of their undergraduate or graduate institutions, with a long-term solution for hosting their ePortfolio, which includes access to materials they produced in Canvas as students. This would require a complex -- perhaps impossibly complex -- solution, with an independent entity (Canvas for Life?) to manage the post-student hosting of credentials, evidence, artifacts, ePortfolios, websites. Still... it would be terrific if it were possible. At any rate, thanks engaging in the conversation.

[emily]

I've been helping colleges and universities develop electronic portfolio programs for over 20 years, and the very first thing I recommend to everyone is that they have completely separate assessment and self-presentation portfolios, especially if there is a reflective element to the assessments. Why?

• Inappropriate material. This is especially true for reflective/developmental portfolios - those reflections are not the "best foot forward" that you want to show an employer. And knowing they may be made public at some point encourages students to censor/shade their reflections rather than honestly self-assessing.
• Different audiences. What is effective for getting a good grade is not usually effective as-is for self-presentation for the purposes of getting a job. At the very least, each artifact needs some annotation to explain what skills it demonstrates.
• Chance for metareflection. We've seen over the years that students have a big bump in understanding when they go back to old assignments and reflect on the skills in those assignments. 
• Logistics and formatting. Dedicated self-presentation venues tend to make it very easy and pretty to present materials. And you're going to want to lock down the formatting of most materials, especially resumes, by saving them as PDFs so they are easy to open and stay formatted properly - all arguments against "just sharing an assignment with an employer."
• Ownership and reuse. If students get their own portfolio account, they can continue to update it easily after graduation, and the responsibility for continued access resides with the student.

Student work is assessed in the course (usually via the LMS) and the self-presentation portfolio is created in some other platform that the student can continue to access after graduation - anything from HTML pages (1990s) to PowerPoint and PDFs (2000s) to dedicated - and free - software like LinkedIn and Seelio (among many, many others) today. If the student is to receive a grade for the self-presentation portfolio, the grading happens in Canvas. Students just submit the URL of their portfolios for grading.